Overview

An Overview of the Greek Genocide

The Greek Genocide (or Ottoman Greek Genocide) refers to the systematic extermination of the native Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire before, during and after World War I (1914-1923). It was instigated by two successive governments of the Ottoman Empire; the Committee of Union and Progress Party (C.U.P), and the Turkish Nationalist Movement of Mustafa KemalAtatürk. It included massacres, forced deportations and death marches, summary expulsions, boycotts, rape, forced conversion to Islam, conscription into labor battalions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments. According to various sources, approximately 1 million Ottoman Greeks perished during this period.

The New York Times: January 13, 1915.

The first phase of the Greek Genocide commenced in the Spring of 1914 in Eastern Thrace and western Anatolia when Turks were ordered to boycott Greek businesses. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks from these regions were also deported. With the outbreak of the Great War in July of 1914, all Ottoman Greek men aged between 21-45 were conscripted into forced labor (or concentration) camps. Most of these men were to perish under appalling conditions after being forced to work around the clock with little food or water. These camps also served as a means of breaking up and disarming Greek communities, thus bringing about their eventual destruction.

In 1915, under the guidance of German military personnel, the C.U.P ordered the deportation of Greek communities from the Dardanelles and Gallipolli regions under the pretext of military necessity. These Greeks were not permitted to take anything with them. Goods in their shops were later sold by Ottoman authorities. Entire communities living along the western coastline of Asia Minor were deported to the interior or to Muslim villages where they were forced to choose between Islam or death. Homes in villages that were not burnt were seized by freebooters of neighboring communities. In some instances, Greeks were forced to sign declarations saying they were leaving of their own free will. In most cases, before deportations took place, Ottoman gendarmes (police) and çetes (armed irregulars) seized money and valuables from communities, committed massacres and burnt churches and schools. In the region of Pontus, Greek communities were deported during the peak of winter when fatalities could be at their highest. Stories of lethal injections, bodies being towed out to sea and dumped, as well as mass killings of Greeks in churches were also witnessed and documented.

The New York Times: 10 July 1921.

According to the Chairman of the Greek Relief CommitteeFrank W. Jackson, by 1917 some 700,000-800,000 Greeks were deported mainly from the coastal regions to the interior of Turkey. The death toll from these deportations was high. With the Ottoman Empire's defeat in WW1, prominent leaders of the C.U.P Party were given death sentences in Ottoman Courts-Martial for their role in organizing the massacre of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians during the war. But the post-war formation of the Turkish Nationalist movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk interrupted the proceedings to bring these perpetrators to justice. Instead, the Kemalist Nationalists continued the C.U.P policy of massacring and deporting Greeks which culminated in the burning of the city of Smyrna (today Izmir) to the ground and the expulsion of all remaining Greeks from Turkey. All able-bodied Greek males were refused exit from Turkey and were sent to the interior where most perished in slave labor camps or were massacred.

The following map depicts massacres of Greeks during the Greek Genocide. It does not include deaths resulting from deportations and labor battalions (concentration camps). This mapping project was created by the Greek Genocide Resource Center in April 2017 and is an ongoing project.

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Eastern Thrace

The genocide of the Greek minority in the Ottoman Empire (today Turkey) during the period 1914-1923 had its origins in the region of Eastern Thrace, otherwise known today as European Turkey or Turkish Thrace. In June 2006 at Didymoticho, Thrace at a global conference of Thracian Greeks, it was decided that April 6 be assigned as the official day of commemoration for the genocide of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace. April 6 was chosen because it was on this day in April 1914 - an Easter Monday - that the Turks began systematically eliminating Greeks from the region. The Greeks of Eastern Thrace also refer to the genocide as ‘Black Easter’ (Grk: Μαύρο Πάσχα).

The regime responsible for the persecution of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace before and during the First World War was the Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P) otherwise known as the Young Turks. The methods used to eliminate Greeks in the region included: boycotting businesses, looting, murders, deportation, extortion, pillaging of towns, villages and places of worship etc. These methods were so effective, and were met with such little or no resistance and international condemnation, that similar methods were later used against other Greek communities in the Empire to bring about their total destruction.

The population of Greeks in Eastern Thrace at the beginning of the 20th century was more than 350,000. During the genocide, many Greeks of Eastern Thrace were exiled to Greece, while 100,000 were deported to the interior of Asia Minor and only half returned.1

Persecutions in 1914

On the 6th of April 1914, 200 Greek families from Strangia (Grk Στράντζα) were deported. After being beaten, stripped of their valuables and having large sums of money extorted from them, Turkish corporals and gendarmes with swords drawn, ordered them to leave. Aspasia Constantinides was an eye-witness to the deportation and recounted:

After a two hour march, we reached a deep and narrow ravine where we found Corporal Ismail with a number of immigrants, apparently waiting for us. As soon as he saw us, he ordered our drivers to stop, and dragging the women out of the carts beat them savagely. They snatched the earrings the women wore and in so doing cut their ears; they forced them to undress in order to get at the necklaces they wore, and often tore them off their necks with such violence that in one instance a woman's throat was cut, causing the blood to flow in torrents.2

They arrived at Heraclea (Trk: Marmara Ereğlisi) where they were boarded onto the S.S Markella and deported.

The Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Special Organization or SO) was a Turkish paramilitary unit that was often used during the genocide to co-ordinate attacks on minorities. A report dated 8th of April 1914, by one of the foreign embassies in Constantinople made mention of 'Special Committees' operating in the Thrace region that were terrorizing Greeks and forcing them to flee. With the aid of the police, they were confiscating property and making residents sign declarations that they were leaving of their own free will.3

A report by the Consular Agent in Kirk-Kilisse (Trk: Kirklareli) on the 23rd of April 1914, stated that the hodjas (Muslim schoolmasters) in local mosques were exciting the hatred of Christians and Greeks, and officials were arming local Turks with army rifles to commit crimes.4

The situation had become so unsafe for Ottoman Greeks that on the 6th of May 1914, the Greek deputies and senators of the Ottoman Parliament made a protest to the Ottoman Government against the persecution of the Greeks in the Empire, but to no avail. Later that month, the Ecumenical Patriarchate declared the Orthodox Greek church in a state of persecution in the Ottoman Empire and subsequently ordered the closure of all churches and schools.

In September 1914, the Mudir (local governor) Sarakin Tahsim Bey, forced the residents of Skepastos to hand over 40,000 okas (Ottoman unit of mass) of corn which he then distributed to the Turkish immigrants at Viza (Trk: Vize). Rigorous boycotts were also enforced on the Greeks of Rodosto (Trk: Tekirdağ) causing many to flee. Out of 250 shops only 20 remained.5

Neohori (Trk: Yeniköy) was located on the main road that linked Gallipoli to Kessani and Constantinople through Rodosto. Before 1914, the village comprised 689 people, all Greeks. In 1914, 567 of the village-folk of Neohori were deported to Vizir Hani (near Bursa) a distance of 300 km. They were first taken to Peristasi (Trk: Şarköy) and from there deported to the interior of Turkey. Only 275 returned after the war in 1918.6

Persecutions in 1915

Between January and April of 1915, there were reports of Greeks being buried alive and arrests of people on dubious charges. Priests, teachers and entire families were also thrown in jail.7

During WW1, the Greek men of Eastern Thrace were enlisted into the notorious Labour Battalions (Amele Taburlari) where men were literally worked to death, doing back-breaking work with little food or water. The rate of desertion was so high that women were beaten by gendarmes with whips on their soles in order to disclose the location of their husbands.

The Greeks in the Diocese of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles were given two hours notice and deported during April 1915 on the pretext of military necessity. They were sent to the interior of Asia Minor without food and water to places near Balikesir some 200 km away. In total, a dozen towns and villages in the Gallipoli region were destroyed and 22,000 Greeks sent to the interior where they were at the mercy of hostile Turks.8

Frank W. Jackson, of Pennsylvania, USA was president of the Greek Relief Committee, an organization established during WW1 to provide relief to Greeks during the genocide. In 1917 he said:

The Greeks of Asia Minor have always been law-abiding and perfectly loyal to the Turkish Government. Under Abdul Hamid they were well treated, but his successors adopted a program to crush them...Along with the Armenians, most of the Greeks of the Marmora regions and Thrace have been deported on the pretext that they gave information to the enemy.9

On the 15th of April 1915, the Greeks of Amygdalia and Maistros in the district of Enos (Trk: Enez) were deported to Turkish villages such as Beyendi and Pasait, while the Turks of the nearby villages plundered their properties, churches and monasteries.10

From the 1st to the 15th of May 1915, the Greeks of Büyükdere, Kirits and Yeni-Machala (Dercos district) were deported. In some villages, people were compelled to sign a declaration that they left of their own accord and out of fear. Protests were made regarding these deportations, but even still, the houses and properties of those deported continued to be seized by Turks.11

On the 1st of June 1915, the inhabitants of Pyrgos (Trk: Burgaz) in the district of Dercos consisting of 3,000 persons including men, women and their babies, children and old people were ordered to abandon their villages and were forced to walk for hours to Büyükdere. From there they were deported to the interior of Turkey and settled in Turkish villages such as Ik-kiol and Soulio in the district of Nicaea (Trk: Iznik). Their homes were seized by Turkish refugees.12

The diocese of Enos was made up of 10,057 Greeks. In August of 1915 they were deported to Malgara (Trk: Malkara). Of the 17 churches, 15 were destroyed and the library which contained 1,900 volumes was pillaged. The monastery of Skalotis was burnt and those of Agios Panteleimon and Tsandiri were completely demolished.13

A report from Constantinople dated 8th of September 1915 stated that all the villages of the district of Kirk-Kilisse had been emptied of their Greek inhabitants. From Skepastos 3,000 Greeks were deported toward Rodosto. On the 8th of September 4000 inhabitants from Sophides were evacuated. The Greeks of Samacovo (Trk: Demirköy) in the district of Vizye (5,000 inhabitants) were also deported around this time. Tourla and St. Stefano of the Vizye district (3,150 inhabitants) were surrounded by Turkish gangs and no one remained.14

In September 1915, the Greeks of Skepastos (Trk: Yenice) were deported after being stripped of all their belongings and arrived at Heraclea after a four day march. The majority then crossed over to the Asiatic side and settled at Balikesir and Ada Pazar. Murder and floggings preceded their deportation.15

The town of Skopos (Trk: Üsküp) and its 6,000 inhabitants had a similar fate. On the 5th of September the town was surrounded by gendarmes and 200 Turks under the command of the ex-chief of the Ismidt gendarmes, Yussuf Bey. The residents were forbidden from leaving. For five whole days they were subjected to an orgy of cruelty and were stripped of 3.000 Ltq (Turkish lira). Some Greeks were buried alive after being forced to dig their own graves. On the 10th of September they were finally deported.16

Harry Stürmer was a German journalist and correspondent for the Kölnische Zeitung newspaper in Constantinople during the years 1915-1916. In his memoir titled Two War Years in Constantinople, Stürmer was highly critical of the Turkish authorities and their treatment of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace. He wrote:

I would like to say here a word about these Greek persecutions in Thrace and Western Anatolia that have become notorious throughout the whole of Europe. They took place just before the outbreak of war, and cost thousands of peaceful Greeks – men, women and children – their lives, and reduced to ashes dozens of flourishing villages and towns.17

Persecutions from 1919-1922

At the conclusion of the First World War, the C.U.P leaders responsible for the atrocities against Ottoman Greeks during the war, were tried in Ottoman courts and found guilty of war crimes. While this may have offered some justice to victims' families, the Allied occupation of Constantinople, and the occupation of Smyrna by the Hellenic army in May 1919 led to the formation of the Nationalist Kemalist movement of Mustapha Kemal. The continued persecution of Ottoman Greeks by the Nationalists from 1919-1922 was a continuation of the program initiated by the C.U.P and was to conclude with their final expulsion.

Many atrocities committed by the Kemalists from 1919-1922 were reported to the Armenian-Greek Section (A.G.S) which was formed by the British High Commission in Constantinople. Between February 1919 and November 1922, the A.G.S met 87 times and heard numerous reports of atrocities against Greeks, but no action was taken against the perpetrators since the Allies were reluctant to act militarily.

On the 20th of May 1919, it was reported that Lieutenant Alwyn Hadkinson, a Relief Officer for Southern Thrace, toured the region and concluded that arms were being distributed with the knowledge and assistance of Government officials. Public security he said was poor and the anti-Christian propaganda was on the increase.18

On the 25th of June 1919, Dr. Theotokas representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate reported that brigandage, murders and pillaging were occurring throughout Thrace.19

The A.G.S heard that the kaimakam (governor) of Shehnikeuy was responsible for Greeks of Rodosto, Malgara and Keshan abandoning their homes and that the Military Governor of Adrianople was encouraging marauding bands there, and that the situation was worsening.20

At the 12th of November 1919 meeting, Mr Calvocoressi representing the Patriarchate reported that Rodosto was full of fedais (fighters prepared to sacrifice their lives) who were menacing the Christians. The Turkish notables at Sharkeuy met at the mosque and stated that they were officially joining the Kemalist Nationalist movement and were preparing to distribute arms and impose payments to those unable to undertake military duty.21

The A.G.S heard on the 10th of December 1919 that Christians returning to their homes at Rodosto found that the Turks had taken possession of their houses and were pulling down their churches to build barracks.22

At the A.G.S meeting of the 10th of March 1920, it was reported that 5 villages at Rodosto were pillaged by 50 unknown persons wearing gendarme uniforms. A month earlier Nationalists had arrived at Rodosto with their leader and arms were distributed among the population.23

The New York Times, 4 March 1920.

On the 30th of June 1920 meeting, it was reported that the Greeks of Heraclea fled to Constantinople after their shops and houses were pillaged and some of the residents were killed. The village of Karahovouz containing 100 families was set on fire and its population massacred.24

The Greeks of Eastern Thrace continued to be persecuted by the Nationalist Kemalists until July 1920 when Hellenic forces were given Allied permission to occupy Eastern Thrace to provide them protection.

In September 1922, the Nationalist forces of Mustapha Kemal brought to an end the existence of Hellenism in the East by burning the city of Smyrna to ashes and setting a deadline for the remaining Ottoman Greeks to leave the country or be deported to the interior; in other words face certain death. Following the signing of the Armistice of Mudanya on the 11th of October 1922, the Greeks of Eastern Thrace were given 15 days to evacuate their ancestral homeland and leave.

American writer and journalist Ernest Hemingway (1892-1961) arrived in Constantinople on the 30th of September 1922 as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star to report on events following the Smyrna fire. The following month he was in Thrace and witnessed the expulsion of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace. In his October 20 dispatch, Hemingway described the wretched state of the Greeks who were attempting the arduous journey to Greece by foot:

In a never-ending, staggering march, the Christian population of Eastern Thrace is jamming the roads toward Macedonia. The main column crossing the Maritza River at Adrianople is 20 miles long. Twenty miles of carts drawn by cows, bullocks and muddy-flanked water buffalo, with exhausted, staggering men, women and children, blankets over their heads, walking blindly along in the rain beside their worldly goods.25

In 2013, the New South Wales Legislative Council in Australia recognized the genocide of Greeks in the former Ottoman Empire while in 2015, the State of South Dakota Legislative Assembly of the U.S.A followed suit. While it is heartening that recent recognition of the genocide of Ottoman Greeks has been done in an inclusive manner, i.e., recognition of all Greeks regardless of region, the genocide of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace still remains unknown to many and deserves more scholarly research.

List of Massacres

The Greek Genocide involved the persecution of native Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire. While deportation to the arid interior of Turkey was the more effective way to liquidate Greek communities en masse, small and large-scale massacres were also committed. Below is a list of known massacres perpetrated during the Greek Genocide.

The list was compiled by the Greek Genocide Resource Center and is not complete. While the list represents a substantial portion of the massacres perpetrated, the project is ongoing and more massacres will be added as they are documented.

A massacre is generally considered as being an indiscriminate and brutal killing of many people. In order to better define the term 'many people' we have chosen 20 as being the minimum number of people killed in order for a mass killing to qualify as a massacre, unless the massacre involved children, notables, wealthy citizens or religious clergy.

The following sources were used to compile the list:

- Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey 1914-1918. The Hesperia Press, London 1919.

- Carroll N. Brown Ph.D and Theodore P. Ion D.C.L. Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey since the beginning of the European War. Oxford University Press, New York 1918.

- Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople: Press of the Patriarchate, 1920.

- The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek.

- Central Council of Pontus. Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus. Athens 1922.

LIST OF MASSACRES

1913

Kumburgaz

January: A Turkish fleet with 500 troops lands at Kumburgaz (Gr: Economio) and orders all young men over the age of 15 years to the sea-shore. 140 males comply and are massacred. Parish priest Neofytos is burnt alive.

June: Armed irregulars stormed the town of Foça (Gr: Phocaea). With the assistance of Ottoman officials approximately 100 Greeks including priests and children were massacred. The town was then looted. The remainder fled.

April: 4,000 Greeks from the region escaped from Turkish military authorities and sought refuge in the forests of Gümüshane . Hard pressed by hunger, some managed to flee towards Russia while the remainder were caught, tortured then massacred, their bodies thrown into the Pyxites River.

November: The village was surrounded by soldiers and gendarmes who opened fire causing villagers to flee to the mountains. They then set fire to the village. As villagers fled in terror, 30 were shot and killed at point blank range.

April: The Vazelon Monastery in Maçka was the sight of a massacre of 487 people, mostly women and children who had been hiding in the forest. They were captured, violated within the monastery, and then massacred. Men were also murdered. The church was then burnt and destroyed, its furniture carried away, its bibles and archives burnt to cinders.

Turkish bands attacked Rize and massacred some of the population. Schools, churches and houses were plundered and demolished. Residents were compelled to emigrate to Russia. Out of 2,000 people only 4 remained.

March: Reports of many murders and robberies by bands of Turks against Greeks in the region. The bodies of 50 Greeks found decapitated and partially burned.

Source: Great Unrest Reported Over Disposition of Smyrna Region, The New York Times, 21 March 1919. Web. <http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE3DC1331E433A25752C2A9659C946896D6CF>

Nazilli

June: Massacre of several Greek families.

Source: Documents of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry into the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjoining Territories. p.10. Web. 24 Oct. 2017. <http://www.ataa.org/reference/iacom.pdf>

Atça

June: 47 Greeks massacred and the priest burned alive.

Source: Documents of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry into the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjoining Territories. p.22. Web. 24 Oct. 2017. <http://www.ataa.org/reference/iacom.pdf>

Köşk

June: 47 people massacred in Köşk, including a doctor and the priest, who was first blinded and had his nose and ears cut off.

Source: Documents of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry into the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjoining Territories. p.22. Web. 24 Oct. 2017. <http://www.ataa.org/reference/iacom.pdf>

Umurlu

June: More than 90 Greeks massacred at Umurlu and 70 bodies found.

Source: Documents of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry into the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjoining Territories. p.22. Web. 24 Oct. 2017. <http://www.ataa.org/reference/iacom.pdf>

Karapelit

June: All the young children of the village were taken to a place close to the Black Sea near the village Hocaali. They were then placed in a circle and shot while musical instruments were played loudly.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.293.

Aydin

June: Massacre of approx. 1,500-2,000 Greeks by Kemalist forces in June 1919. Hundreds of bodies found burnt alive, some after having been raped, and bodies found thrown into wells.

Source: Documents of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry into the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjoining Territories. Document 3, No 33, p.12. Web. 20/07/2017. <http://www.ataa.org/reference/iacom.pdf>

May: The Greek village was surrounded, plundered and all inhabitants massacred except very few.

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople Press of the Patriarchate, 1920, p.142.

Findikli

June: Kemalists surrounded the four Greek villages of Findikli (Gr: Foundouklia). The men were shut up in a church and ordered to come out in fives and were shot. Of the population of 3,400, 400 men and 30 women were massacred.

-Faltaits, K. The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey: Survivor Testimonies from the Nicomedia(Izmit) Massacres of 1920-1921. Cosmos 2016, pp. 71-74.

Fulacik

June: Nationalist Kemalist forces accompanied by the gendarmerie entered the village and proceeded to loot and burn houses and massacre its inhabitants. Three hundred men including boys as young as 14 were locked in the village church before it was doused with petrol and set alight.

Source: Faltaits, K. The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey: Survivor Testimonies from the Nicomedia(Izmit) Massacres of 1902-1921. Cosmos 2016, pp. 43-51.

Mersin

Around June: Greeks and Armenians living in the districts near Mersin were massacred.

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople Press of the Patriarchate 1920, p.116.

Nazilli

June: Approximately 162 Greeks were either massacred or burned to death in their homes when Kemalist soldiers and the gendarmerie (police) put fire to the Greek quarter of Nazilli.

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople Press of the Patriarchate 1920, p.103.

Erbaa

June: Vast massacre of the Greek male population of Erbaa under the command of Kemalist Military Commander Topal Osman. All men aged between 15-70 years were gathered at the home of notable Greek Anastas efendi, or the Armenian church, and were executed. Bodies were disposed of in the forest. Only those hiding in the mountains escaped the massacre.

July: Kemalist forces enter Simav and 15 Greek notables are massacred. 240 inhabitants then deported to Kütahya, but 5 minutes from Simav all were massacred except 25 who managed to escape.

Sources: - Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople Press of the Patriarchate, 1920, p.111-112.

August: Turkish irregulars massacred approx. 600 Greeks of İznik (Gr: Nicaea). Their slaughtered bodies were later found burnt out in a cave just outside the town. The town's church was also destroyed, not before women were raped on the altar.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.299.

Bolu

August: Kurds surround the Armenian quarter where there were 20 Greek families. They pillaged the houses, then shut the men up in the Armenian church, killed the women and then set fire to the church and the whole town. Very few survived. 80 Greeks were massacred.

September: Kemalist army entered Oçoglu near Yozgat and gathered all villagers into the church. They then raped all women and girls in the presence of their fathers, husbands and brothers and massacred all of them, 280 in number.

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate, Constantinople. The Black Book of the Sufferings of the Greek People in Turkey from the Armistice to the end of 1920. Constantinople Press of the Patriarchate, 1920, p.75.

At Saraçli (Gr: Houdi) women and girls were locked in a church where those who weren't killed were raped. Women and children were tied up and shot. Men were massacred en masse.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.327.

Ortaköy

The town of some 10,000 Greeks was completely burnt to the ground in 1920. The majority of the 10,000 Greeks were massacred. Atrocities included rape, be-headings as well as massacre via the use of knives and hatchets.

Source: Faltaits, K. The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey: Survivor Testimonies from the Nicomedia(Izmit) Massacres of 1920-1921. Cosmos 2016, pp. 91-98.

c1920: Wholesale massacre under the command of Kemalist Military Commander Topal Osman. Adults were locked up in barns churches and schools and burned alive. Children were unclothed then thrown in wells and rocks thrown over them. Women were taken to a cliff overlooking a river, were undressed then with knives, axes and bullets attacked and thrown into the river.

July: The Mayor of Giresun, the notorious Topal Osman, and his band of 'cut-throats' entered Merzifon and massacred approximately 1,000 Greeks and Armenians in a massacre that lasted 4 days. The bodies were later dumped and buried in pits in the Christian cemetery.

August/September: Greeks from Edremit who were waiting at Akçay for transport out of Turkey were taken to a gorge near Araplar and killed.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek., p.229.

İzmir

On the 13th of September 1922, nationalist Kemalist forces entered the city, set fire to it, and proceeded to massacre its Greek and Armenian population. Estimates range from 10,000 to 100,000 killed.

Sources: Numerous accounts and news reports.

Çakallar

September: 600 mine workers from the nearby Balya mines are slaughtered with the strike of a bayonet beside trenches that were prepared the day prior. The corpses were then set on fire and Kemalist soldiers remained at the scene for 2 or 3 days until they were completely burned.

September: Massacre of Greeks who were awaiting for ships to exit Turkey.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.236.

Dereköy

September: Massacre of Greeks who were ordered to a gorge at nearby Havran and were all shot.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.238.

Çoruk

September: All 200 residents were massacred. The villagers were taken to a place called Valanithia just past Frengioy where they were all shot.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.245.

Biga

September: A wholesale massacre of Greeks at nearby Yenice (or Intzekioy) that started one evening and ended the following morning.

Source:The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.257.

Havran

September: Sizeable number of Greeks from Havran (Grk: Freneli) escaped to nearby Akçay, near Edremit (see Akçay 1922) where a large proportion of them were killed en masse.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.247.

Balikesir

September: Wholesale massacre of Greeks. Hundreds of girls abducted.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.263.

Elpizli

September: Massacre of Greeks.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. P.338.

Note: No longer on current map. Location approximate and based on available information.

Bahçecik

September: 105 Greek males from Şile were marched to a Turkish village just outside of Bahçecik where they were to be slaughtered but locals complained. They were taken to a nearby field, unclothed and slaughtered with knives. One male survived.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.344.

Pınarbaşı

September: Massacre of Greeks.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.25.

Çesme

September: Greeks who were unable to flee in time on vessels were massacred.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.70.

Yağcılar

September: Massacre of Greeks. The perpetrators were Turks from the neighboring Turkish villages of Kuskular and Salaptalar.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.71.

Alibey Adasi

September: Wholesale massacre of Greeks just outside of town. Many men and women executed by gunshot.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.96,100.

September: Wholesale massacre of Greeks along the shores of Dikili. The massacre was so violent the shoreline was strewn with the blood and bones of the massacred victims.

Source: The Exodus: Testimonies from the Regions of the Western Shoreline of Asia Minor. Volume A. Center of Asia Minor Studies, Athens 1980. In Greek. p.145.

Akhisar

September: Wholesale massacre of men, women and children. The women and children were massacred with machine guns in a nearby ravine under the eyes of the local Muslim population who arrived to watch the spectacle from surrounding heights.

Source: Puaux, René. Les derniersjours de Smyrne. Paris 1923, p.45.

Balikesir Province

September: Upon the arrival of a division of the Kemalist regular army under the command of Kiarim Bey, the Christians of Balya Maden and Balikesir were assembled on the 18th of September to be deported to Ankara. Instead they were massacred somewhere between Balya Maden and Karaağaç. Wells and ditches were opened and corpses were thrown in and burned. The victims amounted to several thousand.

Note: This is the approximate location based on available information.

Bereketli Maden

November: 35 men including three 13 year old children were taken to a place near Yelatan and massacred. Around the same time, 100 carpenters from Bereketli Maden were also massacred in various places further south in the Cilicia region.

Massacre of 125 Greeks. Residents were ordered to gather outside the town's church where they were ordered to hand over their valuables. They were then locked inside the church which was then torched. Some were slaughtered with a scimitar. Among the dead were 3 priests.

Source: Kenanides, L. The Settlement of Asia Minor Refugees from Cappadocia in the villages of (Nea) Aravisou, (Nea) Axou and Neos Milotopos in the province of Yiannitsa. In Greek. Thessaloniki 2008, A, pp.152-153.

Unknown location

Guioz-Keuy 1921

November: Seven priests from Alacam, Bafra and outlying districts were arrested and after being publicly tortured, were crucified at the market place.

Did the Kemalists sell the bodies of Greeks for industrial use?

In 2013, historian Vlassis Agtzidis uncovered three newspaper reports from 1924 which describe how the administration of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk sent 400 tonnes of human remains (approximately 50,000 human bodies) to the port of Marseilles, France aboard a British flagged ship. The reports appeared in The New York Times, the French Midi newspaper and the Greek newspaper Macedonia. The news reports describe how the human remains originated from the port of Mudanya on the Sea of Marmara in Turkey. Agtzidis argues that the remains of these dead bodies may have been destined for industrial use.

The practice of turning human bones into fertilizer was not an uncommon one in the early part of the 19th century. In fact it occurred following the battle of Waterloo (1815). In The Independent newspaper of 3 Aug 2014, Robert Fisk wrote:

After Waterloo, the bones of the dead – Wellington’s Britons and Napoleon’s French and Blücher’s Prussians – were freighted back to Hull to use as fertilizer for England’s green and pleasant land, military mulch from the 1815 battlefields which also yielded fresh teeth to be reused as dentures for the living.

Research by Joe Turner in March 2015 based on archival news reports also revealed credible evidence that an international bone trade did in fact exist during the 19th century.

According to Agtzidis, France was pro-Turkish during the period in question so therefore it wouldn't have been an ethical issue for the French to purchase the bones of dead victims for industrial use.

The New York Times article of December 23, 1924 wrote:

Marseilles is excited by a weird story of the arrival in that port of a ship flying the British flag and named the Zan carrying a mysterious cargo of 400 tons of human bones consigned to manufacturers there. The bones are said to have been loaded at Mudania on the Sea of Marmora and to be the remains of the victims of massacres in Asia Minor. In view of the rumors circulating it is expected that an inquiry will be instigated.

About the load in question, the French newspaper Midi published a news report titled A Mournful Load' in which it stated:

There is much debate happening at present in Marseille about the forthcoming arrival aboard the cargo ship Zan of a cargo of human remains which is transporting 400 tonnes of human remains for the industries in Marseilles. These human remains are coming from Armenian massacre camps in Turkey and from Asia Minor in particular.

Midi Newspaper,Cargaison funebre (A Mournful Load).

On the 24th of December 1924 the Greek newspaper Macedonia reported that the Zan did in fact arrive at the port of Thessaloniki, however the contents of the cargo were not publicly reported. Thessaloniki at the time was overflowing with genocide survivors, so it is possible that authorities chose to keep the cargo's contents a secret so as not to aggrieve the survivors of the genocide.

Despite this, workers at the Thessaloniki port were aware of the cargo. In his book titled Chronicles of the GreatTragedy, Christos Angelomatis states that workers at the port reacted to the cargo’s contents but Greek authorities weren't allowed to take action due to British intervention.

Angelomatis wrote:

Athenian newspapers published the news as follows: 'The docking into the port of Thessaloniki of the English ship Zan from Mudania has transferred four hundred tons of dead Greek bodies. The workers at the port who made the revelation prevented the ship from sailing away, but the British consul intervened and the ship was allowed to sail on'.

Angelomatis added:

They were the bones of Greek heroes ... they were the bones of our Greek soldiers who were either killed en masse or were made to die slowly in extermination camps, the worst of which was the camp of Usak.

The presence of a large number of human remains in Asia Minor was witnessed by Elias Venezis. In September 1922 at the age of 18, Venezis was arrested, taken prisoner and enslaved in a labor battalion. Of the 3,000 conscripted into his labor brigade only 23 survived. Venezis later penned his memoire describing his experience.

In chapter 18 of his memoire, Venezis recounted how a group of prisoners were taken to a ravine just out of Magnesia (today Manisa) and were ordered to hide the remains of tens of thousands of Christians who had been slaughtered. Venezis wrote:

One morning they took about 60 prisoners out to do a job at a place just outside of Magnesia (today Manisa). Opposite the railroad tracks near Sipilos is the end point of a large ravine. They call it Kirtik-Dere.Inside this ravine it was estimated that they'd killed about forty thousand Christians from Smyrna (Izmir) and Magnesia during the early days of the Smyrna Holocaust; males and females. The bodies had melted over winter and the water of the gorge which descended from above pushed the corpses further down. Our job all day was to push the corpses back in so that they couldn't be seen.

Map of Greek Deportations: Mark Ward's Testimony

Mark H. Ward was a Near East Relief physician who witnessed the deportation of Greeks during the Greek Genocide. He and other relief workers were expelled by the Kemalists for keeping notes on the deportations. Between May 1921 and February 1922, while working at the American Hospital in Elazığ, Ward witnessed 38 groups of deportees who were sent through the town in the Harput province.

Ward stated that out of a total of 20,378 that reached Elazığ, 18,000 or 88% were Ottoman Greeks and the remainder Armenians. He estimated that 30,000 were sent from Sivas to Elazığ and that 5,000 of those escaped from the convoys while another 5,000 died along the road. During the fall and winter months there were 4,000 deportees in Malatya alone. 2,000 of those at Malatya died of starvation or typhus. During the 7 months he was working in the American Hospital at Elazığ, 25% of the 1,300 refugees he cared for died. Of the 15,000 refugees who were sent south to Diyarbakir only 12,000 arrived safely, the remaining 3,000 died in the snow covered mountains. 2,000 refugees stayed at Diyarbakir during winter and half of them died from starvation, disease or exposure. Of the 30,000 who left Sivas only 10,000 arrived at Bitlis.

Note: Deportation lines on the map are a guide and may differ slightly. Deportations often intersected neighbouring towns and villages before reaching destination. Deportations from regions whose current place names couldn't be verified such as Koppy, Hadign and Endemish are not shown.

Subcategories

The perpetrators of the Greek Genocide were responsible for planning and executing the destruction of Greek communities during the genocide. They include members of the Committee of Union and Progress Party, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his nationalist supporters (Kemalists) as well as German military personnel.